Date: 19th July, 2017
Dr. Anjana Saxena, Associate Professor
City University of New York (CUNY), Brooklyn College, USA.
Title: Hit Cancer Cells at the Central Command: Nucleolar control of gene expression
Abstract: All eukaryotes have evolved an elaborate surveillance mechanism to maintain genomic integrity against variety of cellular insults. The cellular response to DNA damage could be either in the survival mode, where DNA repair and cell cycle arrest occur, or in the death mode, where apoptosis is induced. Nucleolin, an abundant nucleolar phosphoprotein with RNA- and p53-binding properties, controls gene expression by regulating mRNA stability and the p53 signaling pathway. Nucleolin is highly phosphorylated at the N-terminus by two major kinases: interphase casein kinase 2 (CK2) and mitotic cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (Cdk1). I will discuss how nucleolin phosphorylation by CK2 is vital for cell proliferation and its phosphorylation functions as "molecular switch” to signal changes in gene expression in the p53-signaling pathway to reduce cell viability.
